When it comes to political protest, the conflict between Israel and its neighbours inspires wearily predictable responses. Following every flare-up, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters mass in front of the Israeli embassy in Kensington. Pro-Israeli demonstrators rally in Trafalgar Square. So ritualistic have such practices become, it's practically impossible to imagine how these two sides might reconcile.

The situation is compounded by the tendency of activists to swallow feelings of ambivalence in the pursuit of polarised forms of "solidarity" that eschew doubt. Many of those who demonstrate for Israel are privately horrified by Israeli actions, but hide their doubts because of fear of undermining Israel's security. Many of those who demonstrate against Israel are similarly concerned about the rise of fundamentalism in Islamic countries and among Palestinians.

The heat of the conflict is particularly intense in diasporic London, riven as it is with activist organisations and exiled political communities, Jewish and Muslim, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist. Despite its diversity, politically speaking, "London" is practically a synonym for division.

In the past year alone there have been repeated instances in which Israeli-Palestinian conflict inspired extremist forms of intolerance, widening further the Jewish-Muslim gap in the city. A series of violent clashes and incidents at the LSE earlier this year, for example, shocked many, forcing the university to reaffirm its commitment to fighting antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The need for a similar coalition between Iranians and Israelis is particularly telling at this juncture, when Israel's looming conflict with Iran risks deepening the divisions, but also offers an opportunity to break form. So useless and bloody is this conflict likely to be that there is a chance that previously partisan activists may begin to question their ingrained habits.

There is little, ideologically, to defend, on either side of the political spectrum. Many pro-Israel activists balk at the recklessness of Netanyahu's desire for war. Many who have demonstrated against Israel do not wish to stand with a theocratic Iran that oppresses its own people, and is embroiled in the suppression of the Syrian revolt.

On top of this, many Israelis and Iranians find few reasons to support their governments' increasing closeness to war. Tens of thousands promise to be killed, in the name of what, exactly? Regional hegemony? It's hard to find anything attractive about that, considering the consequences.

Similarly, an Israeli-Iranian war risks a near-apocalyptic conflagration that will strain already tenuous Jewish-Muslim-Christian relations to breaking point. This flies in the face of the deep commonalities between the Abrahamic faiths and the yearning of many for reconciliation – a desire that seems lost on the Israeli and Iranian political establishments, but not Iranians and Israelis.

Iranian society still bears the scars of the eight-year war with Iraq (1980-88.) A second such devastating war would inflict far deeper wounds, complicating the country's psyche in many of the same ways that Israelis are familiar with, and can relate to. Israelis, similarly, would find it hard to differentiate Iranian military violence from any other they've been subject to, including the Holocaust.

We would like to propose that such a situation creates the possibility for Iranian-Jewish/Muslim-Jewish collaboration. A coalition can be built that rejects both Israeli and Iranian militarism and confrontation. Such a coalition would refuse the tired old position-taking and build a genuine peace movement in its place.

This coalition would build on the work of interfaith and intercommunal dialogue and collaboration that already occurs in the UK – much of it under the radar. It would also be specifically British, drawing on the everyday "culture of conviviality" that its multicultural cities foster at their best.

So far, interfaith and community activists in the UK have avoided such overtly political and public activity. It's time for them to step up the plate and show that it is possible to build a new kind of movement that refuses easy polarities, shows empathy and opposes militarism.

It wouldn't be the first time that Iranians and Israelis attempted to join forces at a grassroots level. The Israel-Loves-Iran campaign, the brainchild of Tel Aviv-based designer Ronny Edry, took the media by storm earlier this year after gaining more than thousands of followers on Facebook. There's no reason we can't do the same in the UK.

Follow the day's developments as the US state department said it is concerned that Gulf-supplied weapons are reaching the wrong hands and urged Syria's neighbours to keep a vigilant watch on their airspace